Accelerating Multi-stakeholder Partnerships for the SDGs

28 October, 3 & 4 November 2021 

Background

In 2019, the United Nations launched an ambitious global effort to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, a Decade of Action. The Decade of Action calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to the biggest challenges facing the international community – ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and closing the finance gap.[1] In September 2019, the UN Secretary-General urged all sectors of society to mobilize for a decade of action on three levels: global, local and people action. In people action, youth, civil society, the media, the private sector, unions, academia, and other stakeholders are the initiators to promote the transformative movement for the Agenda 2030. Developing and implementing multi-stakeholder partnerships among these initiators is recognized as critical for mobilizing and sharing knowledge, technologies and financial resources to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, particularly low and middle income countries. 

As witnessed in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to enhance and strengthen global cooperation and effective partnerships among all stakeholders in different sectors to tackle the challenges in the time of crisis. Societies gradually begin to recover and move to more sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies, and multi-stakeholder collaborations are one of the vital mechanisms, which can lead to the transformational development. In fact, the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs are the outcome of the collaborative mindset of working based on the interconnectedness of social and economic development along with environmental sustainability. This requires an unprecedented level of cooperation among a wide range of stakeholders such as civil society, business, government, NGOs, academia and others.

When it comes to the achievement of the SDGs, we all are developing countries and we are on the same page about what part multi-stakeholder partnerships can play in realizing the goals. However, well-designed, effective and impactful partnerships do not come out of thin air. In order for partnerships among various stakeholders at all levels to be successfully revitalized, the partnerships need a system-wide approach to and skills in partnership design and its building. In this regard, CIFAL Jeju organizes a virtual training workshop to provide space for knowledge sharing and peer learning experience along with expert insights on multi-stakeholder partnership cases in different contexts. The program will also guide you through the partnership formation process from defining to designing partnerships along with key characteristics of effective partnership platforms in practice.

Event objectives

- To provide a platform for sharing good practices and lessons learned on partnerships

- To explore how to design and implement high impact multi-stakeholder partnerships to tackle the challenges facing the global community in achieving the SDGs

- To analyze stakeholder engagement platforms in practice to gain professional insights for better designing and implementing a multi-stakeholder partnership towards sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies

Expected outcomes

- Better understanding of the potential stakeholders with different resources, competencies and aspirations that can be brought around a common vision

- Sharing different approaches to building high impact multi-stakeholder partnerships among all sectors at the global, regional, national, and local level

- Getting familiarized with various tools to build the partnering skills and competencies for the creation of more effective partnerships

Target audience

This training is open to anyone from different sectors mainly in Asia Pacific countries – government, NGOs, civil societies, academia, business and others, who is starting a partnership from scratch, already involved in one, or familiar with working in partnership in a wide range of contexts for sustainable development.

Program Details

[1] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/decade-of-action/